A different kind of Pearl Street Mall walking tour

I can't believe my baby is already 35. Especially considering the fact that I'm only 33.

Math has never been my forte, which is why I'm a writer, and I'm a writer in Boulder largely for three reasons: Pearl. Street. Mall. Ah, yes, my baby. The anniversary of her dedication in 1977 is tomorrow.

In celebration, That Eighties Band threw in a few hits from 1977 during Wednesday's Band on the Bricks, and attendees of that event and Noon Tunes, as well as downtown employees, dressed retro hippie style. So yeah, normal attire.

This mall held my sanity together for a decade while I worked at the Camera's 10th and Pearl building, before we relocated to Nowhere, the name of our current nondescript office park.

I honored Pearl Street's b-day with a walking tour from one end to the other. But not the informational tours offered through boulderwalkingtours.com. No, this was an impulsive and uneducational Aimee Heckel Tour, hitting up the shops I've always wanted to visit; the new ones I'd be familiar with if I still worked on the mall; and the familiar faces that I miss now that I actually have to pay for parking to go there.

8 a.m. -- World Café, 946 Pearl, has been open since 7 a.m. I remember this as the Cuvee Wine Bar, but three weeks ago, it reopened to appeal to the morning crowd, as well. It still sells 30 types of wine, but this morning it smells like Conscious Coffee, Atlas Purveyors teas and vegan muffins.

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World Café joins 17 other coffee, tea and juice cafes in downtown, according to Downtown Boulder Inc. A few doors away is the 30-year-old staple, Trident, and just across the street is the busy new Ozo Coffee. People joke that Pearl Street has more coffee shops per block than anywhere. World Café is empty, but server Ryan Shepler says the response has been good. He calls the Pearl Street mall the "main artery" through town.

"I don't know what it was like three decades ago, but the community in Boulder really appreciates locally sourced art, food and drinks," he says. "The mall has that Boulder vibe."

10 a.m. -- The mall is stretching awake. Two men push a piano down the brick street, getting ready to start playing near Broadway. In front of the Boulder Book Store, 1107 Pearl St., in his regular spot on the brick wall, sits Mark Flynn with his guitar.

I walked past Flynn multiple times a day, five days a week, for a decade. We exchanged smiles, but I never spoke to him. I don't know why.

I sit down with him today. I am shocked that he recognizes my face, out of the thousands he has seen while busking on the mall for 17 years. He plays classic rock from the '70s. In a way, his music reflects the mall's roots, he says.

"A lot of the people who came here were of that era. As they say, they became yuppie or whatever, but they still remember that music," Flynn says.

Flynn used to run an open mic night, and he played at clubs and weddings. But when he discovered the mall, he says he stopped everything else.

"This is what I enjoy most," he says. "I've met a lot of people from all over the world. It's like a home away from home."

He's seen stores come and go, such as The Bookend Café, where he used to get his coffee. But overall, Flynn thinks the mall is the same place it's always been. He points down the mall at long-standing businesses: the bookstore, Old C's, the Pearl Street Pub. The people are the same, too, he says.

"They love to hear my singing and playing," he says.

11 a.m.-- The first place in Boulder where I ever ate breakfast was The Mountain Sun, 1535 Pearl, an anti-corporation, community-centric hangout. This 19-year-old landmark is still busy. But a block away, at Boulder's new Snooze Eatery, a long line of bodies lounge on the sidewalk. It feels and looks just like the Snooze on Larimer Street in Denver.

I walk past brightly decorated Snooze and head to the Laughing Goat Coffee House, 1709 Pearl. This shop opened in 2005, shortly after the cultural relic, Penny Lane, closed doors. The Laughing Goat isn't meant to be Penny Lane Part II, but it holds the space for live music nightly and a place for local poets to gather -- including the decades-old "So, You're A Poet" reading series that once attracted the likes of Allen Ginsberg.

This morning, it smells like cinnamon, and I order a blueberry tea.

11:30 a.m. -- The colorful windows of Fabricate (fabricateboulder.com), just off 17th Street, is enough to attract a non-crafter like yours truly. This contemporary fabric boutique opened in January and offers a variety of DIY and sewing classes for adults and kids.

The co-owner, Linda Spillmann, is vacuuming up after two young girls spent the morning making backpacks.

I've had "learn to sew" on my New Year's resolution list for most of my adult life. Fabricate offers sewing classes for $35, Spillmann says. Machines provided, or bring your own. She recommends a Janome 3160 QDC for beginners. I once had a sewing machine, but I sold it after I couldn't figure out how to load the bobbin, or bobber, or whatever it's called. Spillmann insists anyone can learn. One of the girls who just left was only 6 and had never sewn before. This gives me hope, and simultaneously makes me pathetic.

"The sky's the limit for what you can do sewing," Spillmann says, encouragingly.

1:30 p.m. -- Children climb a collection of large rocks, a very "Boulder" playground. Nearby, a woman holds a cardboard sign: "Raising money for wedding." A few yards away, another woman with a physical disability holds a sign asking for help.

A group of young men walks briskly down the mall, laughing loudly and not wearing shirts. One has drawn all over his body in marker. He shouts across the mall at someone leaving a pizza shop carrying a box.

"Hey, can I have your leftovers, bro?"

"They're not leftovers. Bro." He's clearly heard this line before.

At the edge of the block sits Lance Wever, a self-proclaimed "bucketeer" pounding out complicated rhythms on an assortment of upside down plastic buckets. A group gathers around him. Change clinks into one of his buckets.

"This is me just trying to get some exercise, make a couple bucks, have a lot of fun and interact with as many people as possible," he says. "I'm trying to get people to come together, in a sense, and take their eyes off all the (bull) around."

Wever says he's played on the streets of many cities, and he's planning on hitting the road again soon. But this mall is unique in that the people are friendly, and there aren't too many drunks and "bad people" to worry about, he says.

"We're located right below the mountains. When you come here, you can either relax, or brainstorm and be creative and go for a hike," he says.

But it's not entirely welcoming, he says. He says he's received several $300-$400 noise violation tickets and he was kicked off the mall for 90 days for "going 72" in a 65-decibel zone.

A woman walks past and throws some money -- the non-clinking kind -- into his bucket.

"You are the best entertainment on Pearl Street," she says as she walks away. "By far."

Right on her heels is another passerby. He rolls his eyes.

"Why don't you play real drums?" he asks.

Wever doesn't look phased.

"I do," he responds. And he picks up his sticks and rolls into another riff. Whether it's in defiance, celebration of the mall's birthday or just for fun, it's a little more elaborate than his last, while most assuredly keeping at 65 decibels or less.

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